A storage system is a computer that provides storage service relating to the organization of information on writable persistent storage devices, such as memories, tapes or disks. The storage system is commonly deployed within a storage area network (SAN) or a network attached storage (NAS) environment. When used within a NAS environment, the storage system may be embodied as a file server including an operating system that implements a file system to logically organize the information as a hierarchical structure of directories and files on, e.g. the disks. Each “on-disk” file may be implemented as a set of data structures, e.g., disk blocks, configured to store information, such as the actual data for the file. A directory, on the other hand, may be implemented as a specially formatted file in which information about other files and directories are stored.
The file server, or filer, may be further configured to operate according to a client/server model of information delivery to thereby allow many client systems (clients) to access shared resources, such as files, stored on the filer. Sharing of files is a hallmark of a NAS system, which is enabled because of its semantic level of access to files and file systems. Storage of information on a NAS system is typically deployed over a computer network comprising a geographically distributed collection of interconnected communication links, such as Ethernet, that allow clients to remotely access the information (files) on the filer. The clients typically communicate with the filer by exchanging discrete frames or packets of data according to pre-defined protocols, such as the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP).
In the client/server model, the client may comprise an application executing on a computer that “connects” to the filer over a computer network, such as a point-to-point link, shared local area network, wide area network or virtual private network implemented over a public network, such as the Internet. NAS systems generally utilize file-based access protocols; therefore, each client may request the services of the filer by issuing file system protocol messages (in the form of packets) to the file system over the network identifying one or more files to be accessed without regard to specific locations, e.g., blocks, in which the data are stored on disk. By supporting a plurality of file system protocols, such as the conventional Common Internet File System (CIFS), the Network File System (NFS) and the Direct Access File System (DAFS) protocols, the utility of the filer may be enhanced for networking clients.
A SAN is a high-speed network that enables establishment of direct connections between a storage system and its storage devices. The SAN may thus be viewed as an extension to a storage bus and, as such, an operating system of the storage system enables access to stored information using block-based access protocols over the “extended bus”. In this context, the extended bus is typically embodied as Fibre Channel (FC) or Ethernet media adapted to operate with block access protocols, such as Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) protocol encapsulation over FC or TCP/IP/Ethernet.
A common type of file system is a “write in-place” file system, an example of which is the conventional Berkeley fast file system. In a write in-place file system, the locations of the data structures, such as inodes and data blocks, on disk are typically fixed. An inode is a data structure used to store information, such as metadata, about a file, whereas the data blocks are structures used to store the actual data for the file. The information contained in an inode may include, e.g., ownership of the file, access permission for the file, size of the file, file type and references to locations on disk of the data blocks for the file. The references to the locations of the file data are provided by pointers, which may further reference indirect blocks that, in turn, reference the data blocks, depending upon the quantity of data in the file. Changes to the inodes and data blocks are made “in-place” in accordance with the write in-place file system. If an update to a file extends the quantity of data for the file, an additional data block is allocated and the appropriate inode is updated to reference that data block.
Another type of file system is a write-anywhere file system that does not overwrite data on disks. If a data block on disk is retrieved (read) from disk into memory and “dirtied” with new data, the data block is stored (written) to a new location on disk to thereby optimize write performance. A write-anywhere file system may initially assume an optimal layout such that the data is substantially contiguously arranged on disks. The optimal disk layout results in efficient access operations, particularly for sequential read operations, directed to the disks. A particular example of a write-anywhere file system that is configured to operate on a storage appliance is the Write Anywhere File Layout (WAFL™) file system available from Network Appliance, Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif. The WAFL file system is implemented within a microkernel as part of the overall protocol stack of the filer and associated disk storage. This microkernel is supplied as part of Network Appliance's Data ONTAP™ storage operating system, residing on the filer, that processes file-service requests from network-attached clients.
As used herein, the term “storage operating system” generally refers to the computer-executable code operable on a storage system that manages data access and may, in case of a filer, implement file system semantics, such as the Data ONTAP™ storage operating system. The storage operating system can also be implemented as an application program operating over a general-purpose operating system, such as UNIX® or Windows NT®, or as a general-purpose operating system with configurable functionality, which is configured for storage applications as described herein.
A storage operating system is typically a complex collection of software, which may include a plurality of modules, processes and programs that execute on a storage system. Programming errors, or bugs, that occur in the storage operating system may cause loss or corruption of the data stored by the storage system. As such, it is desirous to find and remove bugs from (“debug”) the storage operating system to ensure data consistency and proper operation of the system. While developers attempt to ensure that a version of the storage operating system is “bug free” before it is released to end users, certain bugs may only manifest error conditions after a version of the system has been released and is utilized in real world conditions. As such, debugging often occurs once the storage system executing the storage operating system has been installed at a client site.
Developers may utilize a variety of tools to aid in debugging. One common tool is the GNU Project Debugger (GDB), which is available from the Free Software Foundation, Inc. of Boston, Mass. GDB comprises two modules, a GDB stub that executes on the computer containing the software to be debugged and a GDB client that executes on a separate computer. The GDB stub typically transmits and receives data over a serial connection to the computer executing the GDB client.
An exemplary storage system environment 100 utilizing GDB is shown in FIG. 1. A storage system 300 is connected to a plurality of clients 125 via a network 105, and to an administration console 130 and a computer executing a GDB client 115 via serial connections 120. Since the administration console 130 and the GDB client 115 utilize serial interfaces, they must be physically close to the storage system 300. However, storage system 300 of such an environment 100 is typically utilized in a remote data center wherein the system is geographically separated (remote) from the location of the developer. Thus, to debug the storage operating system or other software executing on the storage system, the developer must physically travel to the remote data center. This need for developer travel increases the time and difficulty involved with debugging of software, thereby increasing the total cost of ownership of a storage system.